Saturday, March 12, 2016

A Memory or Two from The Button Box

I am reading The Button Box by Lynn Knight so slowly it might be 2017 before I come up with full thoughts, so I thought it would be nice to share some very favourite moments as I go along.

I know some of you are reading this as well and I wonder if you are finding, as I am, that it is a book laden with so many reminders that I have to keep going and searching things out, having a rummage in the sewing drawers and indulging in a bit of a nostalgic wallow.

This week it has been my mum's school needlework books with their beautiful stitched examples...

And with mention of the word 'haberdashery' I'm off on a frolic of my own. If you have been watching Call the Midwife then the Haberdashery Shop will have been a familiar reminder of the one-stop-shop where women could buy just about everything they needed.

And then there was the embroidery...

Most women choosing embroidery silks are choosing skeins of leisure; the home dressmaker seeks serviceable thread, but even women sewing from necessity enjoy a little flourish now and then..

Embroidery decorated homes as well as clothing. Those without a garden could make one to hang on the wall by stitching blazing hollyhocks, vibrant nasturtiums and every other cottage-garden flower - and a crinoline lady to water them. Embroidery stitches are veritable gardens in themselves : fly stitch, leaf stitch, stem stitch, spider ... daisy ...'

..and what should adorn the wall of my sewing room but...well, embroidered gardens various because I have collected a few from charity shops very recently...

and yes, that is a glimpse of a childhood gallimaufry on the left there.

Amongst my favourite cottage gardens this one rescued for £1...

However, my biggest Button Box Wallow of the week was still to come...

'Haberdashery was where you placed an order for Cash's name tapes, those essential labels for gym kit and school blazers, provided by J. & J. Cash of Coventry. There was something tidy and pleasing about names spelled out in coloured thread on narrow ribbon. Many more tapes were ordered than were needed; all over the country, a lifetime's name tapes exist in buff-coloured packets pushed to the backs of drawers...'

I'm betting plenty of you remember those, either your own or sewing on your children's name tapes. I fell in with the tradition until I suddenly realised that a permanent pen would do the job just as well. I felt a bit slovenly when I finally capitulated. There is something noble and motherly about the whole stitching in name tapes thing.

Now I am mildly ashamed of the state of my personal haberdashery department, the ribbon drawer leaves a lot to be desired...

The trouble is I go to it, grab something and cram it shut again, but I knew exactly where I needed to look...

Right at the back.

My mum had bought hers in 1950. I'm trying to think why she might have needed six dozen for herself because I can only think of labelling nighties for maternity stays in hospital.

But all this aside...has Lynn Knight been to my house, might she have been snooping around my sewing room.

My love of The Button Box continues and I haven't even taken a close look at the button drawer yet.

So what say you on Haberdashery and old embroideries...

And rescuing things from charity shops and looking after them for a while...

And school needlework lessons...

And bits of old ribbon that can't be thrown away in case they come in useful...

Comments

I am reading The Button Box by Lynn Knight so slowly it might be 2017 before I come up with full thoughts, so I thought it would be nice to share some very favourite moments as I go along.

I know some of you are reading this as well and I wonder if you are finding, as I am, that it is a book laden with so many reminders that I have to keep going and searching things out, having a rummage in the sewing drawers and indulging in a bit of a nostalgic wallow.

This week it has been my mum's school needlework books with their beautiful stitched examples...

And with mention of the word 'haberdashery' I'm off on a frolic of my own. If you have been watching Call the Midwife then the Haberdashery Shop will have been a familiar reminder of the one-stop-shop where women could buy just about everything they needed.

And then there was the embroidery...

Most women choosing embroidery silks are choosing skeins of leisure; the home dressmaker seeks serviceable thread, but even women sewing from necessity enjoy a little flourish now and then..

Embroidery decorated homes as well as clothing. Those without a garden could make one to hang on the wall by stitching blazing hollyhocks, vibrant nasturtiums and every other cottage-garden flower - and a crinoline lady to water them. Embroidery stitches are veritable gardens in themselves : fly stitch, leaf stitch, stem stitch, spider ... daisy ...'

..and what should adorn the wall of my sewing room but...well, embroidered gardens various because I have collected a few from charity shops very recently...

and yes, that is a glimpse of a childhood gallimaufry on the left there.

Amongst my favourite cottage gardens this one rescued for £1...

However, my biggest Button Box Wallow of the week was still to come...

'Haberdashery was where you placed an order for Cash's name tapes, those essential labels for gym kit and school blazers, provided by J. & J. Cash of Coventry. There was something tidy and pleasing about names spelled out in coloured thread on narrow ribbon. Many more tapes were ordered than were needed; all over the country, a lifetime's name tapes exist in buff-coloured packets pushed to the backs of drawers...'

I'm betting plenty of you remember those, either your own or sewing on your children's name tapes. I fell in with the tradition until I suddenly realised that a permanent pen would do the job just as well. I felt a bit slovenly when I finally capitulated. There is something noble and motherly about the whole stitching in name tapes thing.

Now I am mildly ashamed of the state of my personal haberdashery department, the ribbon drawer leaves a lot to be desired...

The trouble is I go to it, grab something and cram it shut again, but I knew exactly where I needed to look...

Right at the back.

My mum had bought hers in 1950. I'm trying to think why she might have needed six dozen for herself because I can only think of labelling nighties for maternity stays in hospital.

But all this aside...has Lynn Knight been to my house, might she have been snooping around my sewing room.

My love of The Button Box continues and I haven't even taken a close look at the button drawer yet.

So what say you on Haberdashery and old embroideries...

And rescuing things from charity shops and looking after them for a while...

And school needlework lessons...

And bits of old ribbon that can't be thrown away in case they come in useful...

Constants...

Team Tolstoy

Team TolstoyA year-long shared read of War & Peace through the centenary year of Count Lyev Nikolayevich Tolstoy's death, starting on his birthday, September 9th 2010.
Everyone is welcome to board the troika and read along, meeting here on the 9th of every month to chat in comments about the book.

Team Tolstoy BookmarkDon't know your Bolkonskys from your Rostovs?
An aide memoire that can be niftily printed and laminated into a double-sided bookmark.

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